Hypoglycemia Treatment

There are a number diseases or conditions that produce that same
symptoms as hypoglycemia. Therefore you should always consult your
physician first. Some of these other diseases or conditions are
potentially life threatening.

Introduction

Definition of Hypoglycemia by an Endocrinologist:
Click HERE to see a
good definition of what hypoglycemia is, what the different forms of
hypoglycemia are, and what forms of hypoglycemia are life threatening.

If you are like most sufferers of hypoglycemia, you have at this
point seen at least two or three doctors and all of them tell you that
nothing is wrong with you, that you are in perfect health. You feel
like telling your
doctor, "If I am so healthy, why do I feel so bad?" The basic problem
is
that the medical establishment does not recognize all of the
manifestations of hypoglycemia. The generally accepted definition is
that your blood glucose level has to drop below 50 mg per 100 ml in
order for you to be deemed to have hypoglycemia. I was once told by an
endocrinologist that I did not
have hypoglycemia. He told me that he saw a lot of people like me, and
that
they did not have hypoglycemia either. I asked him that if so many
people
had similar symptoms, didn't that show that there was something there
that
needed to be investigated. That was about the point that he quit
listening
to me.

That's the bad news. The good news is that if you have reactive
hypoglycemia, that is if your body has the same reactions as someone
who has what the doctors
classify as hypoglycemia (50mg per 100 ml blood glucose), the same
treatment
will help you. Let me give you some resources first and then give a
thumbnail
sketch of the treatment.

Resources

Books

The Low Blood Sugar Handbook by Edward and Patricia
Krimmel. This is the best book on hypoglycemia available today. It can
be ordered for $12.95 plus $3.00 postage from: Franklin Publishers,
P.O. Box 1338, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. They have a web page at
http://home.earthlink.net/~ekrimmel2/

Internet Pages

All my links to internet pages went out of date. I suggest
that you do a Google search for current pages. Just be aware that
that the medical establishment may post pages that either say
hypoglycemia doesn't exist, or give some really strict interpretation.
Remember that unless you have an organic cause like an
insulinoma, the only real treatment at this
time is to control hypo through diet. God be with you.

Thumbnail Sketch of
Treatment

All the causes of hypoglycemia are not known. What has grown up,
however, is a body of knowledge of things one can do to help alleviate
the symptoms. The basic problem is that for some reason the body does
not handle blood glucose properly. If you eat sugar, or something that
is easily converted to sugar by the body, the sharp rise in blood sugar
causes too great an increase in the levels of insulin. The result is
that the blood sugar is driven too low, too fast. Since the brain
doesn't store a great deal of energy, like say the muscles do, it is
very sensitive to the levels of blood sugar. If the brain isn't
operating properly, then you can get all sorts of different symptoms.

The first basic treatment is to avoid all foods that contain
elemental sugar. This includes almost all desserts and junk foods.
(Actually that wouldn't
be so bad for a "healthy" person would it?) It also includes all non
diet
soft drinks. A lot of people find that caffeine also stimulates the
release
of blood glucose and precipitates a reaction. That is the reason why
caffeine
helps keep people awake and "gives" them energy, it's really the
increase
in blood glucose giving them the extra energy. Beware of anything that
comes
in a box from the supermarket. The food industry loves to add sugar to
things
to entice you to eat their products. The worst offender you can think
of
are breakfast cereals. They not only put sugar in their product, but on
their
product. The cereal that I have ended up with is Shredded Wheat, which
has
no added sugar.

The second basic treatment is to give your body small doses of food
at more frequent times during the day (the frequency people use varies
from
6 times a day up to 11 or 12 times a day). These snacks should, of
course,
be smaller portions of things which are digested slowly. Things that
are
digested slowly include protein and complex carbohydrates. For
comparison,
simple carbohydrates are include things like sugar. Complex
carbohydrates
include whole grains and fresh vegetables. Beware of everything that
has
ingredients that end in -ose, which denotes a sugar. These include
dextrose,
glucose, maltose, sucrose, sorbital. Fruits are sort of in a gray area,
with
their fructose. If you have a fruit drink, such as apple juice, then
the
sugars can be absorbed quickly. If you have applesauce, then the body
has
to do some breaking down of the applesauce before it can get to the
sugar.
If you have a whole apple, then the body has a lot of breaking down to
do.
You have to read labels to see if the products have sugar in them.

To help me keep my weight down, a dietician prescribed non fat
proteins for me to eat. These include nonfat string cheese, cream
cheese, and bean dip. Surprisingly, if you cut out the simple
carbohydrates, you probably won't gain weight eating all those snacks.
In fact, you might even lose weight!

Other Hypo Activities

You may want to participate in a hypoglycemia email chat group.
This has the benefit of talking interactively to someone else who has
hypoglycemia. Let's face it, I can't cover every situation or
condition. :-) Anyway, there are two ways to join the
email chat group:

Once again my links to the hypo chat group went out of date.
The last time I had contact with them they had the group in with
the Yahoo groups. You might want to do a search there for
the hypo chat group. ComputServe
used to have a group, but I do not know at all even if CompuServe is
still
serving.